The Cleveland Cavaliers were that close to building their win streak from four to five games the other night when they played the Washington Wizards at home. However, a few mistakes by the team and bad coach managing of the bench and personnel late in the game spelled doom for the team. The Wine and Gold still sit at 7-5 on the young season and are far more competitive on a night-to-night basis compared to years past.
However, after this latest heartbreaking loss some new questions have risen again and some of them have to do with Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and his understanding of his players strengths and weaknesses.
Question #1: What is Bickerstaff thinking at times during games?
Every time I want to give Bickerstaff credit for what his team has been accomplishing on this young season, I always get disappointed in his decision-making, because quite honestly, his decisions have cost this team a game or two.
The loss to the Wizards Wednesday night was a game that the Cavs were winning most of the game, comfortably too, being up by 10 points at times. In the closing minutes, after Cleveland scored again to give them a six-point lead with only two minutes left he replaced Cavs forward Dean Wade with fellow forward Cedi Osman.
Wade had started the game, and though he doesn’t score a lot, he’s an excellent defender. Plus, right before the substitution, Wade fed Cleveland big man Jarrett Allen on a beautiful assist where Allen extended the lead with a layup. Pulling Wade out of the game, at that moment, was a bad move by Bickerstaff and likely contributed to the loss.
Bickerstaff’s track record is suspect, at best, when he’s been the head coach. Back in 2015 he became the Houston Rockets coach in November and he led them to a 37-34 record. His other head coaching experience happened when he was with the Memphis Grizzlies between 2017 and 2019. In those two seasons his team won 48 games but lost 97. That’s not very good and his years in Cleveland, prior to this season, haven’t been any better, as he was 27-56.
So starting the season at 7-5 is good but that record would have been better already if he had managed his personnel better. And that’s what has me up at night thinking because, the loss in part on Wednesday, was on the coach. Obviously the Cavaliers players didn’t execute their defense down the stretch or hit important shots or free throws, but these are the little things between being a winning team or a losing team. Bickerstaff will have to demonstrate far better coaching abilities for me to trust him when the games are on the line.